[Congratulations! You gained: +1 Agility]
...
[Congratulations! You gained: F-rank Skill: Rodent's Greed]
...
[Congratulations! You gained: F-rank Skill: Rodent's Greed]
...
[Congratulations! You gained: F-rank Skill: Rodent's Greed]
...
...
"Oh, come on, can you give me something else?"
In a secluded spot deep within a dense, overgrown forest, a young man mumbled in frustration.
"Only 2 points of Agility, and it's already over?"
He glanced at the tiny creature in front of him with a suspicious gaze, which suddenly froze.
With a gold coin clutched tightly in its tiny paws and eyes wide with guilt, it looked like someone caught red-handed.
"Krrr!"
However, seeing Lucien merely watching with no intention of acting, it slowly placed the coin in its mouth, chewing at a rapid pace. Its greed was visible from afar.
"Although his speed decreased after I extracted agility, why didn't his skill disappear?"
Lucien blinked, confused.
He already got the F-rank Skill: Rodent's Greed 4 times, and this Glimmergnaw was still greedy for the shiny objects.
It didn't make sense.
"I can't extract the agility stat now, but I can extract the F-rank skill as many times as I want?"
Lucien felt he didn't have a full understanding of his system, so he immediately decided to test whether his guess was correct.
Anyway, it was just a few gold coins—he wasn't lacking that much.
As he made up his mind, Lucien suddenly ignored the rodent that had nearly finished its meal and slowly pulled out another coin from his mana ring.
The moment it appeared, he could already feel the greedy gaze from the side.
Then, as if he were casually placing the coin beside him, he set it down—clearly visible to the Glimmergnaw.
'Oh, what a pain... Just what do I have to do to trigger my system?'
Lucien felt a wave of bitterness.
For the system to activate, he couldn't simply give the coin away with the intention of letting it be taken. That wouldn't work.
It had to be stolen—only then would the system respond.
Basically, he had to convince himself that he was just placing it next to him with no intention of giving it up.
Although the method wasn't too strict, it still gave him a headache every time.
"Swoosh!"
As soon as he placed the coin on the ground, it vanished in an instant and reappeared in the Glimmergnaw's hand.
Its eyes sparkled with excitement and greed. It didn't even try to hide or be sneaky while stealing.
After all, it had already done this multiple times, and it knew this human was stupid, didn't care, and even liked him a little.
With its excitement bubbling over, its long ears perked upright and a high-pitched squeeka escaped its mouth—it almost looked endearingly cute, despite its thieving nature.
'Maybe it thinks I'm an idiot,' Lucien thought speechlessly at the blatant theft right before his eyes.
When he remembered all the effort he had gone through just to let it steal the coin the first time, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Fortunately, the prompt from the system made him feel a little better.
Ding!
[You have loaned 1 gold coin to Glimmergnaw – F-Rank Rodent.]
[Subject shows no intention of repayment.]
[Debt collection attempt: Failed.]
[Analyzing transaction records…]
[Extracting compensation of equivalent value…]
[Congratulations! You gained: +10 Loyalty]
[Congratulations! You successfully awakened a new system feature: Chain of Allegiance.]
[Chain of Allegiance:]
> Command bonded beings with 50–95% obedience, depending on the Loyalty point used. Control lasts up to 10 minutes per Loyalty point.
> Note:
Spending 100 Loyalty points forces complete surrender. Loyalty points can only be used on the entity where they were gained. Chances to gain Loyalty points increase if the entity reveres you.
> List Of Allegiance:
Glimmergnaw: 10 Loyalty Points]
"...What the...?"
This time, Lucien was completely stunned. What he saw was far different from what he had expected.
"Loyalty Points? Even this can be extracted?"
He glanced at the rodent in front of him, happily gnawing on the coin while sitting comfortably in place.
For the first time, it showed no sign of alertness or caution, as if it didn't care that Lucien was watching.
"So, you're actually comfortable around me now?"
Lucien was left speechless.
He was even more speechless when the rodent suddenly looked up at him with eager expectation after quickly finishing the coin.
Its large, cute eyes scanned him from hand to face, as if silently asking, "Why are you just standing there? Take another one out. I am hungry."
"Wow!"
Lucien didn't know what to say. This was just too absurd.
'Wait a minute, if I think further, isn't this the perfect chance to increase my strength?'
However, suddenly Lucien thought of the implication of the Loyalty Points.
Currently, he was in the Genesis Rift dungeon taking a test.
Although he still didn't know what the test was, as he was just thrown randomly in this forest, it was a fact that he managed to gain 2 points of agility and a skill already, although the skill was worthless.
"So, what if I find a horde of Glimmergnaw and extract agility points from all of them?"
It wasn't like the thought had never crossed his mind before. But until now, he had no idea where to even find them.
This little guy had been pure luck.
'But with Loyalty Points… could I use that to locate its nest?'
Lucien's eyes lit up as he suddenly looked at the rodent with excitement, causing it to flinch slightly.
But just as quickly, it perked up again the moment it saw Lucien pulling out another gold coin.
Its whiskers twitched. Tiny claws tapped the ground. It was practically vibrating with anticipation.
However, this time, instead of casually placing it down like before, Lucien met its eyes and spoke gently, like coaxing a child.
"Little guy, do you want this? How about you do something for me first?"
He dangled the coin between his fingers, letting it glint in the light. The rodent stared at it like it was a divine treasure.
Seeing its shining eyes, Lucien smirked.
"Take me to your friends."